SDrive-Max, sdrive.atr question

[eegad]

My wife got me an SDrive-Max for Christmas this year. Really nice little device. I wish I could send it back through time to my 1985-self.

 

I've got a technical question - if you look at the contents of the sdrive.atr file, what is the difference between the files SDRIVE.COM, SDRIVEN.COM and SDRIVENH.COM? They all seem to be the "menu" that boots up on drive 0. 

 

The reason I ask is because there is one thing about the sdrive menu that annoys me.....the fact that the Option key also acts as an arrow key to navigate through file lists. I load atr's into drive(s)....then I need to hold Option and then Reset in order to reboot with Basic disabled (800xl). But of course when I touch Option, it starts going click-click-click through the file list. Very minor gripe to be sure, but it kinda annoys me.  So I want to run the menu through a disassembler / hex editor and NOP out the check for console key presses (and also maybe change the background color to normal Atari blue). I guess I could just hack all 3 files, but I figured I'd ask before I dig in.  Thanks for any input.

 

 

 

[Gavin1968]

The source is available on Github so no need to hack the assembled code. You might also consider using the touch screen to set the image and still use option on the computer to boot without basic. That is the cool thing about the SDrive over the other SIO2SD solutions, the touch screen. 
 

[E474]

Hi,

 

   I think the different sdrive.com files can be selected if you hold down SHIFT when booting. You can also reboot with the Atari/inverse video key.

[JR>]

from:

https://atari8bit.net/wp-content/uploads/SDrive_en.pdf

 

Note: While booting the SDRIVE.ATR you can choose between loading the SDRIVE.COM control program (default), SDRIVEN.COM („NoAutoload“ version), SDRIVENH.COM („NoAutoload“ + built-in help), DOS II+ or S/XEGS RAMcart feeder of control program (SDRIVENH.COM) by holding Atari Shift and pressing keys 1 to 5.

[+mytek]

I moved this posting from another thread to here because it really seemed like this was a more appropriate place to ask questions about the SDrive Control Program based on the title of this topic.

 

Hopefully this is an easy question for someone in the know.

 

When doing a search for a particular file on the SD card using CTRL+F, it'll find the first instance of a file starting with the name that I type in. However if you have several files that also start with that exact same search query how can I step through them one by one (in other words, go to the next one in the directory). I tried pressing 'F' again but that just got me a beep from the computer. Does anyone know how to do this?

 

 

[Ricky Spanish]

1 hour ago, mytek said:

I tried pressing 'F' again but that just got me a beep from the computer.

Press the space bar.

[+mytek]

14 hours ago, Ricky Spanish said:

Press the space bar.

Aww that does work, but only if I don't enter the entire first name as part of the search.

 

So what I mean is lets say I have 3 files in the GAMES directory.

1. Donkey Kong Jr.xex
2. Donkey Kong-Playsoft.xex
3. Donkey Kong-Playsoft (RMT Sound).xex

After pressing CTRL+F,  I then enter "Don" (no quotes) I'll get item 1 highlighted. Then pressing space I see item 2, and once more I see item 3. So far so good

 

This holds true if I enter "Donk" as the search term, but any more characters such as "Donke" or "Donkey" is a no go.

 

I also had two versions of Preppie! in that same directory, and interestingly I could enter up to "Preppi" no problem but not "Preppie" or "Preppie!" without getting the beep on hitting the space bar. So it looks like you will be limited to only entering characters up to 2 places before the end of the first word in the name if you want to use the space bar to see the next similar title in the directory.

 

Anyway now that I know the limitation, no problem. Thanks Ricky

 

I think now I'll go update the help menu I made on my website.

 

[kbr]

I think this is a long filename issue, the search only shows on the DOS(8+3) filename.

 

[kbr]

On 1/31/2020 at 10:46 PM, eegad said:

The reason I ask is because there is one thing about the sdrive menu that annoys me.....the fact that the Option key also acts as an arrow key to navigate through file lists. I load atr's into drive(s)....then I need to hold Option and then Reset in order to reboot with Basic disabled (800xl). But of course when I touch Option, it starts going click-click-click through the file list. Very minor gripe to be sure, but it kinda annoys me

This is for XEGS users, who don't have a keyboard, i think.

[+mytek]

11 minutes ago, kbr said:

I think this is a long filename issue, the search only shows on the DOS(8+3) filename.

 

Not a biggie. Once I understood what was happening it was easily adjusted for. Overall I really like the SDrive Control program. If I had to ask for one more feature, it would be the option to do a one key boot of a file. So in other words; if I have a file name highlighted, pressing START would launch it as drive 1 by default, with no manual drive assignment necessary. Of course the standard method would still apply.

 

[Ricky Spanish]

2 hours ago, mytek said:

if I have a file name highlighted, pressing START would launch it as drive 1 by default,

You can do that from the S-drive (D0) menu. Otherwise that would be a nice feature instead of typing out D:matrix.bxe.. but then again typing it out doesn't take very long ha-ha.

[+mytek]

15 hours ago, Ricky Spanish said:

You can do that from the S-drive (D0) menu. Otherwise that would be a nice feature instead of typing out D:matrix.bxe.. but then again typing it out doesn't take very long ha-ha.

I'm not sure if we are talking about the same thing (or I'm just not understanding, which is certainly possible).

 

It seems like what you're talking about might be specific to the SDrive-Max's touchscreen menu. Whereas this topic is about the sdrive.atr (the SDrive Control Program being run on the Atari) and is non-specific as to the SDrive hardware it's being used with.

 

So the feature I was wishing for was when you arrow Up or Down the SD card's directory listing as shown via the SDrive Control Program, that instead of pressing Return twice and then resetting the computer to run that file as drive 1, that instead it would be cool to simply press START one time to launch it. This would make it work in a similar way to how the Uno Cart or numerous other multi-cart Loaders work. Of course the idea would be to still allow for assigning a file to a drive in the original way, with this being merely an alternative feature.

 

[Ricky Spanish]

8 minutes ago, mytek said:

I'm not sure if we are talking about the same thing (or I'm just not understanding, which is certainly possible).

 

It seems like what you're talking about might be specific to the SDrive-Max's touchscreen menu.

Yeah probably on my side. From the S-drive menu (D0) you find the file you want (as we discussed above), hold start and it'll load it into D1. Then you press reset and it will autoboot D1. Easier than trying to find/load through the S-Drive touchscreen. Especially if you have a lot of files. Probably not the info your looking for though. 

[+mytek]

11 hours ago, Ricky Spanish said:

Yeah probably on my side. From the S-drive menu (D0) you find the file you want (as we discussed above), hold start and it'll load it into D1. Then you press reset and it will autoboot D1. Easier than trying to find/load through the S-Drive touchscreen. Especially if you have a lot of files. Probably not the info your looking for though. 

I'll have to try that. Didn't realize START was already being used in that way

 

Edit: Just tested it - does the exact same thing as if I had used the Return key. So you need to press it twice, and then follow that with Reset. Same 3 key presses required to launch a file.